Anna Árpád-házi arrived in Constantinople in 1272 to marry the later II. To Andronikos.
The Italian daily La Repubblica reported on Sunday that Peter Schreiner, an expert on the Byzantine era, put an end to more than a hundred years of scientific debate, who identified the until now mysterious protagonist of one of the codes of the Vatican Library with Princess Anna of Hungary.
The cultural section of the newspaper announced the unraveling of the mystery of the so-called Byzantine princess in a long article.
Until now, the name and origin of the princess who was known as the protagonist of one of the Greek-language, much-researched codices of the Vatican Library was unknown. The manuscript, dated 1272, revealed only that it was a western princess who married an eastern, Byzantine heir to the throne.
The Vatican librarian, Leone Allacci, began to study the codex in the 17th century, and in 1901, the German Josef Strzygowski wrote about it, but he did not arrive at the exact identification of the historical figure.
The mystery was solved by Byzantinologist Peter Schreiner, one of the best-known researchers of the time, a professor at the University of Cologne, who also revealed the identity of the mysterious princess and the exact circumstances of the creation of the manuscript.
We managed to decipher the identity of the mysterious princess
Source: https://digi.vatlib.it/
According to him, the princess is none other than Anna of Hungary, the daughter of István V, who came to Constantinople in 1272 to marry the later II. To Andronikos.
The manuscript fragment consisting of seven parchment leaves is actually a medieval album of poems and pictures, which gives a detailed description of the courtship, the arrival in Constantinople, and the marriage ceremony. In the center is the princess who came from abroad and became the wife of the son of the Byzantine emperor.
Princess Anna got married when she was just thirteen, and the poem preserved in the codex and its illustrations were made as a wedding present right after the wedding.
Anna of that II. He lived his life at the side of Andronikos, who is known for the flourishing and renaissance of the Eastern Empire.
The scientific results were presented at the Collegium Hungaricum Hungarian cultural institute in Rome at a conference organized jointly with the Vatican Library.
An extensive scientific presentation and processing of the manuscript will be published in 2024 in the Vatican Library series with the contribution of seventeen European researchers, edited by Peter Schreiner and András Németh, the library's curator of Greek manuscripts, and art historian Vasiliki Tsamakda.
The manuscript was restored this year with the support of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Library and Information Center.
MTI
Cover image: Sistine Hall of the Vatican Apostolic Library
Source: Wikipedia/Michal Osmenda from Brussels, Belgium
